Nigeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Cote D’Ivoire, DR Congo, Guinea, Mali and South Africa are the last eight in the ongoing AFCON 2023 (it is AFCON 2023 played in 2024)
Among the eight only Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire are African football powerhouses while South Africa is close by.
But in a competition where Ghana, Tunisia and Algeria did not qualify from their groups and Egypt, Cameroon (the two highest AFCON winners), Morocco (Qatar world cup semifinalist) and Senegal, the defending champios could not make it to the quarterfinals, none of the remaining teams should be seen as a weakling.
Nigeria must play Angola like they want to play France. They must not think of who will be their semifinals opponent until they are through with their match against Angola in Friday.
It is after that that Cape Verde or South Africa should start getting a mention in their thought process. Nigeria was preparing for Brazil at France’98 World Cup when they haven’t played Denmark first. We ended up losing the game by a 4-1 margin.
Angola as at today is our only opponent and we must be concerned about them alone at the moment. It is however good that the powerhouses are almost all gone. That is a fact.